I loved my 17 years with R.E.M. but I'm ready to reflect assess and move on to a different phase of my life. The four of us will continue our close friendship and I look forward to hearing their future efforts as the world's biggest R.E.M. fan.

China has not established the rule of law and if there is a power above the law there is no social justice. Everybody can be subjected to harm. I'm just a citizen: my life is equal in value to any other. But I'm thankful that when I lost my freedom so many people shared feelings and put such touching effort into helping me.

Every American deserves to live in freedom to have his or her privacy respected and a chance to go as far as their ability and effort will take them - regardless of race gender ethnicity or economic circumstances.

Freedom requires no effort to enjoy but requires heroic efforts to preserve.

Most men after a little freedom have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort it brings.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs or impede their efforts to obtain it.

Well first let me say that I think health care reform is important. It has to be a priority. And our system is broken. The Finance Committee bill is the best effort yet due in large measure to the efforts of my colleague Olympia Snowe but it's not there yet. It falls short.

There's enormous progressive activism and more often than not success at the grassroots level - everything from living wage campaigns to efforts to finance our elections are having terrific success.

Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It meets a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts that is something on which to pride yourself but poverty itself is romanticized by fools.